VMware Updates vFabric Cloud App Development Suite

VMware's vFabric Suite, designed for developing applications for VMware's cloud infrastructure, has been updated with the addition of automated deployments of apps on virtual machines.

VMware on Tuesday also said its vFabric Suite 5.1 now includes a commercial version of the Postgres open-source database application, as well as support for open-source components without the need to purchase new licenses from the company.

vFabric Suite combines VMware's Spring development framework with new application services for a complete set of runtime services to help develop applications for use in distributed, cloud environments.

[Related: VMware To Buy SpringSource For Java, Open-Source Technology ]

vFabric 5, which was introduced last year, is a set of application services optimized for Spring and vSphere for organizations that need to build cloud-scalable apps, which typically include Web, application, and messaging servers, said David McJannet, director of cloud and application services for VMware.

VMware is focused on transforming the virtualized world by easing the development of cloud platforms with its Spring enterprise application and Java development platform, which VMware acquired in 2009, McJannet said.

"People building apps today require scale, as those apps are used by thousands of users over the cloud," he said. "Just look at Instagram, which was just acquired by Facebook. Millions of people are using it. These apps are written generally with some sort of framework like Spring. Developers are not really building apps to run on a specific place."

vFabric Suite 5.1 now includes VMware's vFabric Application Director, which McJannet said automatically deploys the needed virtual machines for the required Web, app, and messaging servers.

"Before, these components were manually deployed on virtual machines," he said. "Developers would create a virtual machine, add Apache Tomcat, and push the app. Now the deployment is automatic."

Also new to vFabric Suite 5.1 is the inclusion of vFabric Postgres, a VMware-optimized version of the open-source PostgresSQL database used in such cloud applications like Instagram.

"We are now providing a commercial version of the Postgres open-source database," McJannet said. "It's the first time we're offering it as a stand-alone product."

VMware is also supporting open-source components without the need to purchase a license from VMware. "Before, if you wanted to use Apache Tomcat, you had two choices: run an unsupported Apache Tomcat, or get the support license from someone else," he said. "We now are saying we will support Apache Tomcat."

Next: VMware Also Adds SQL Interface To GemStone In-memory Database

Also new from VMware on Tuesday is vFabric SQLFire Enterprise 1.0, an in-memory database based on its acquisition of GemStone Systems two years ago. The new version of the in-memory database now includes a standard SQL interface, McJannet said.

SQLFire Enterprise can be used by Software-as-a-Service providers to develop applications, which can be used by millions of users because the database that underpins those applications run in distributed memory, making it faster and closer to application endpoints than traditional databases, he said.